432 PEOSB HAXIETJTICS. 



Another, from the same site {vide Brunnich), a whole 

 man and two thunnies yet in their skins ; another from 

 the mouth of the Surinam river, a woman minus her 

 head; another, caught off the isle of St. Margaret's, a 

 whole horse (Muller) ; another, a bahy of which she was 

 delivered, by Spallanzani ; whilst E-ondolet gives the par- 

 ticulars of a man who went down in company with his 

 dog into the stomach of a dead shark; the one for 

 curiosity, the other to prowl about for offal. Some 

 squali, cited by Cetti in his 'Pesci di Sardegna,' weighed 

 from three to four thousand pounds, having ample stow- 

 age for eight or even ten full-sized thimnies ; from these 

 and similar statements, it seems certain that large sharks 

 have ample accommodation for a single man, whence it 

 has been inferred, rather hastUy perhaps, that it must have 

 been a squalus, and not a whale, which swallowed Jonah. 

 Criticizing this conjecture, a distinguished French natu- 

 ralist makes the following pithy and rather caustic re- 

 mark : ' II est sans doute possible qu'un requin eut fait 

 sa proie d'un prophete; mais les livres saints ajoutent que 

 Jonas sortit de ce goufire, vivant, au bout de trois jours; 

 et cela n'est plus dans I'ordre ordinaire. Les ouvrages 

 d'histoire naturelle peuvent bien contenir des merveilles, 

 puisque la nature en est remplie ; mais on doit y renoncer 

 k chercher 1' explication de miracles.' That he was not 

 swallowed by a whale is certain, for whales have very 

 small gullets, and are not anthropophagously disposed; 

 their food consists principally of small creatures only a 

 few inches long, and not thicker than the barrel of a com- 

 mon-sized quiE.* 



The origin of this mistake, perpetuated by sculptors 

 ■ and painters, proceeds from a misconception of the He- 



* Specimens of the whale's food were exhibited (July, 1852) at 

 the scientific meeting in Ipswich, by one of the coast-guard, an 

 intelligent and accurate obsei:ver. 



